World Soil Day – Measure, Monitor, Manage

World Soil Day (WSD) is held each year on Dec. 5 as a way to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and to advocate for the sustainable management of soil resources.

An international day to celebrate soil was recommended by the International Union of Soil Sciences in 2002. Under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand and within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has supported the formal establishment of WSD as a global awareness raising platform.

This month, the United Nations is turning international attention to the growing risks facing the world’s soils. This year’s theme is Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor, Manage.

In Canada, the long-term health and sustainability of soil is also an issue, particularly with the growing demand for food production and the impact of climate change.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) scientists are working to measure, monitor and manage this priceless resource. Fredericton-based researcher Dr. Louis-Pierre Comeau is working on the link between soil biodiversity and the soil’s ability to capture carbon.

He’s leading the Canadian Soil Biome Survey by sampling soil across Canada, researchers are exploring how soil organisms influence carbon emissions, crop productivity and the impact of climate change.

Comeau said they started the project in Atlantic Canada before the COVID-19 pandemic. He said there were a few surprises.

“More than 500 points in Atlantic Canada and more than 500 points in Ontario and Quebec. Now we are analyzing the data,” he said. “There is a very strong relationship with microbial abundance with land use intensities and carbon storage. It was much stronger than what we were expecting.”

The Observatory’s next major project is surveying northern ecosystems, including land that could become suitable for agriculture as a result of climate change.

In another project Dr. Xiaoyuan Geng manages the Canadian Soil Information Service, the country’s leading source of soil data for more than 50 years. The collection has been built from the ground up, from field probes and hand-collected soil samples to radar-carrying planes and satellite imaging.

It has now introduced computerized machine learning, a move Dr. Geng said is transforming their work, making it faster and more efficient to see how Canadian soil is being affected – and will be – by climate change and the increasing demands of food production.

Dr. Mervin St. Luce of Swift Current and Dr, Stephen Crittenden from Brandon are soil researchers who are using technologies to better understand soil. By shining visible to infrared and mid-infrared light at soil samples, a process called spectroscopy, they can estimate within minutes the levels of organic carbon, nitrogen, pH and texture, as well as other soil properties. The process is faster and cheaper than traditional chemical analysis. It also creates digital copies, or fingerprints, that can be saved in spectral libraries.